"I hereby announce my candidacy for the
office of President of the United States."

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Legalizing Drugs

60 Minutes: Mexico's "Queen Of The Pacific"

The juice for everything discussed in that segment comes from the U.S.: the money and the guns. The problem is not so different from the gang problem we have within the U.S.: territorial disputes, graffiti wall markings, general gang culture hooliganism and drive-by gun violence all stem from the illicit drug trade. And the vast sums of money derived from the drug trade is such that the police and politicians in both countries can be corrupted.

The U.S. is awash in illicit drugs. The idea that drug prohibition is keeping drugs out of the hands of Americans is absurd. Anything you may desire is available for a price. Prohibition never curtails access, it merely creates a black market. The "Drug War" that the U.S. is still so famously waging is an admission that the drug traffickers are winning - that the drugs are readily available. "Just say no" is not a meaningful statement in a land without ready access to illicit drugs.

That article discusses only the legalization of marijuana but I could see things going much further. I mean, why stop there?

This isn't a call for society wide insobriety; it's about solving the very real crime problems confronting us on the streets each day. Prohibitions create black markets. Black markets create underground economies that thrive on violence, theft and prostitution. Gang cultures grow up around those economies and become problems of criminality for society as a whole.

What would the Mafia do without the drug trade? How about the Colombian, Peruvian, and Mexican drug cartels? How about the Crips and the Bloods?

Legalization and regulation are absolutely the cure for those problems.

When the money dries up and every drug becomes legal, regulated and taxed all the fun of being a bad guy goes away.